Ambassador Dennis Ross is director and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. For more than twelve years, Ross played a leading role in shaping US involvement in the Middle East peace process and in dealing directly with the parties in negotiations, and was the US point man on the peace process in both the Bush and Clinton administrations. He was instrumental in assisting Israelis and Palestinians in reaching the 1995 Interim Agreement; he also successfully brokered the Hebron Accord in 1997, facilitated the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, and intensively worked to bring Israel and Syria together. A scholar and diplomat with more than two decades of experience in Soviet and Middle East policy, Ross worked closely with Secretaries of State James Baker, Warren Christopher, and Madeleine Albright. He also played a prominent role in developing US policy toward the former Soviet Union, the unification of Germany, and its integration into NATO.